INFOGRAPHIC.

Hello everybody!

Today we are going to talk about infographic. Probably, you as me, have never heard about this word. I'm going to explain you what it is. 

Infographics are a tool with which you can make complex information eye catching, shareable and easily digestible. They are a good resource to use in the classroom with our students, because they are very visual and the important thing is that no large amount of texts are necessary. That makes easier the learning process for children.

There are different webpages that you can use and you can find all of them online. In this case, I have used: https://www.canva.com

I highly recommend this webpage, is very intuitive. There are different templates depending of the topic. When you have chosen one of them, you can add the images and the text.

I made a infographic about the metamorphosis. As you can see is very visual and easy to understand.

I hope you like it.

Enjoy.

Boots Infographic de Laura Carballo Mato

MINDMAP. OUR RIVERS.

Hey mates,

This new post is about how to create a useful resource for us as teachers and in our classroom: mindmaps.

A mindmap is an image of different elements, used as key point that provide specific information on a particular topic or the ramifications of several issues in relation to a central point.

In this case, I have created a mind map with Mindmeister: https://www.mindmeister.com/ which is very simple to use.
You can start by writing the title of your project and you will see different ramifications appearing. Depending on where you are interested in incorporating a new ramification, click on the correct place and it will be added.

The thing that I like the least is that if you want to add any image from your computer or from Internet you have to pay for that. There are some images for free, but not a lot.
The good part, is that you can add images from the web. Writing the key word, you will see different images related with the topic. The visual are very important, so don't forget to add some.

The mindmap is about a project that I would like to carry out in class. By looking the mindmap, teachers and even students will be able to understand what the project will be about and what we are going to do during the days that the project will take place. The project has a duration of two weeks and focuses on the study of local rivers, as well as awareness of the care and maintenance of them.

See you soon,

Thanks for reading.

 

OUR RIVERS by Laura Carballo Mato

Learning the metamorphosis: comic.

Hello mates!

Today I'm going to talk about an amazing tool that I have discovered in my last class.

Have you ever used comics as a resource in your lessons? I'm sure that yes. Children love comics because they are very visual. Comics are a mix of images, dialogue and character expressions. Comics break down a story's plot and text into bite-sized chunks  and this is easier for our brain to process than reading a large amount of text on a page.

I have always used comics to encourage students to like reading and also I have always read comics when I was a student. But in that cases the comics where written in a traditional book. In this case, the comics are on a webpage and the more exciting thing is that you can create them!

There are different pages to make your own comics as for example:

- Pixton: https://www.pixton.com/

- Creaza: https://www.creaza.com/frontpage

- StoryboardThat: http://www.storyboardthat.com

To create my comic I have used StoryboardThat: http://www.storyboardthat.com

I like this one because is very easy to use, you don't need to be a proficient ICT to use it. The webpage is very intuitive. On the top you can find the different plots, characters, texts to write your story, etc. You have many option to create the story as personalised as you want.
StoryboardThat has  a problem, you just can create six cells as maximum for free. Otherwise you will have to pay. But even with this, I found it an amazing resource, with a lot of options to create fantastic stories.

Like with all the materials that teachers create, you should have an aim of your comic. In my case, I have created a comic about a school situation where the main character feels frustrated with a subject matter.

In the comic the students will be able to understand vocabulary related with some emotions and they will learn how to face a struggling situation that they can find in their school.

Below you can see my comic. I hope you like it and help you.

Thanks for reading.

Laura.

Made with Storyboard That

THE CONTINENTS

Hello friends,
Today I´m going to talk about how to make incredible presentations. If you are not a fan of teaching lessons with a traditional way, following the text books, and you bet for innovation and visual resources I have the best option for you: Genial.ly https://www.genial.ly/. You are going to love it.
This is not the only one, there are more as the ones bellow that are also great:
Google Slides: https://www.google.com/slides/about/
Prezi: https://prezi.com/
Powtoon: https://www.powtoon.com/home/
Biteslide: https://www.biteslide.com/

I have chosen Genial.ly but you can choose whatever you want. With these tools you can create amazing slideshows. Probably you already know Power Point, as it is the most famous, and it has the same function. The difference, in my opinion, is that with these ones you have more options, more predetermined slideshows, more effects, etc. Therefore it makes them much more attractive.

I believe that as teachers we must be in continuous learning and development. We must also adapt to the demands of today's world, so I think that incorporating this type of resources (ICT) in the classroom is very important. We must offer the students a wide rage of teaching resources and this is one good example.

I personally didn't know about Genial.ly. As I have mentioned, Power Point is the most famous and the one that I always use. For me it has been a great discovery to apply in my future lessons. Sometimes PowerPoint can become too serious for Primary graders, I think Genial.ly give us much more attractive things.


In this case, I have create a presentation about the seven continents. It is intended for the first grade of Primary Education for Social Science. They are going to learn important information about the continents and focusing also on two typical animals that belongs to each of them.

Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading.

Laura.

MY CONTENT CURATION

Hello everyone, 

In this post I'm going to explain you how to classify, organise and search information in a effective way through a content curation tool. There are different tools which help doing this job, I recommend you to use the ones bellow:

Symbaloo: https://www.symbaloo.com

Pearltrees: https://www.pearltrees.com/

List.ly: https://list.ly/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/

With these tools you can make your owne resource bank. This is very helpful because when you are on the net you can find yourself a bit lost. There is a lot of information when you are on Internet and this can be confusing. For example, when you want to search something in Google, you will find different webpages with different purposes. Content curation help us to organise the different websites in which we are interested in. 

In my case, I have chosen Pearltrees: https://www.pearltrees.com

Using this tool is very interesting in a CLIL Lesson because you can have your favourite webpages organised and this makes your job much easier. Also, it can be helpful for other teachers and everybody could share with others interesting tools to find motivation and inspiration. You can also add new pages that you are finding and in this way make your resources bank much richer and more complete.

Bellow you can see my content curation.
I hope you like it and it helps you.



Lauuracarballo7

LEARNING THE METAMORPHOSIS WITH IMAGE ATTRIBUTION

Hey everyone,

Today I´m going to explain you what I have recently learnt in my last class. We are going to make a CLIL Lesson using common pictures! I will propose you to do it about the metamorphosis of a butterfly, because I love natural science, but you can do it about wathever you want. You will see that is very easy and hepful to use in the classroom. You can not forget to quote and attribute the source of each image.

Let´s start!!

METAMORPHOSIS

THE LIFE CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY

1. EGG

By Nilserk License (CC0 1.0)

2. LARVA

By Agzam License (CC0 1.0)

3. PUPA

By Illuvis License (CC0 1.0)

4. ADULT BUTTERFLY

By LubosHouska License (CC0 1.0)

As you can see, teaching the metamorphosis through pictures is very visual and students may find it easier to understand the process because we are using real photographs of the process.

In this CLIL lesson I have used different pictures from Pixabay

This is a easy website where you can find the image that you want with a simple search.

There are several different ones on Internet, this is just an example so choose the one that best suits your needs. It is very important that, as teachers, we should not use any picture without knowing if we can use them freely. Always take into account to use free image banks.  I also added all the licences and the author bellow each picture. 

From my point of view adapted images is a helpful resource to use in the classroom. If you add pictures to the topic that you want to teach, is always better for students  understand and learn because you are adding realistic visual things and  also always clarifies the information.

I hope you enjoy it.

See you soon.

Laura

MY AVATAR

"Hello everyone. This is me, as you can see in my video I'm studying to become an expert in ICT. In my school I expect to learn many things that I would like to share with you"

My learning goals are:
-   To introduce my avatar
-   To share with others what the avatars are, and how we can use them in the classroom.
-   To let others know different websites to create an avatar.
-   To reflect if they are useful or not.
-   To improve my digital competence.

Create an avatar is an interesting resource to use in the classroom, not only as something creative and fun that students can do, but also to develop their digital skills.
To create my avatar I have used the website: avachara.com. I started with different websites, as there is a wide range of possibilities, but as I wanted to make my avatar able of moving and talking, and I didn't find any website (at least for free) I had to use different programs to get the result that I wanted. As I said, I created my avatar with avachara: (https://avachara.com/ .)Then I used the programme atubecatcher (https://atube-catcher.softonic.com/) to record the screen while I was changing the different options of mouths to give the impression that my avatar is able to speak. Finally I used adobe premier (program) to make the video, add different photos and, of course, to also add the voice.
I think this process is not very easy for students, so maybe they could just make the avatar online, with this website or any other.
The avatars are very interesting because through them we can tell or explain any topic in a different way. We can create a historical character that explains to our students events and facts of the past, as well as explore future situations or even make the students develop their creativity by creating imaginary avatars with imaginary lives.
It is very important that we have to take into account the age of the students and to adapt it to the level of difficulty.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT?
Doing this activity I have learnt a lot about avatars. Before, I only knew them by the application "snapchat", which I used it just as something fun with friends. I have never before contemplated the possibility of using avatars as a resource in the classroom where students can not only learn about ICT, but also they can learn different contents. 
By doing the avatar I learned how to use different websites to create the avatars, as well as the programs I mentioned previously. I think it was very interesting.